Page 83 of The Blood Witch

“How is our wheat farm in the fourth octant fairing?” Alice asked, looking down the table at an attractive man in his twenties.

“Good!” he answered. “Two families have settled onto each farm, and it sounds like the vast majority of the crop from this year can be salvaged. By next year, the Elk are confident they can have the realm’s wheat supply back to expected levels.”

“Who’s that?” Vee asked Amalia, frowning at the man at the table.

“I don’t know. I don’t recognize him,” Amalia answered. “He’s sitting in Kellos’s seat, so I guess he’s representing the Shifters tonight?”

Vee’s head jerked sideways to look at her.

“Kellos?” she asked, and something in her eyes made Amalia uncomfortable.

“Yeah,” she said. “He’s, uh, he’s a Lion Shifter. He’s usually the Shifter representative. Do you… do you know him?”

“I know him,” Vee answered, looking back into the room. Her voice was strangely quiet, strained. “I just didn’t know he was our Faction’s representative, is all.”

“Oh,” Amalia answered, not sure what to say. Were the council members supposed to be a secret? Had she broken some rule by bringing her friend here, by showing her this?

Vee stepped back from the door, and for a moment her face was hidden in shadow, so much so that Amalia couldn’t make out her expression at all.

Then it was gone, and Vee smiled at her.

“Come on, let’s go back to your room. This is boring anyway, isn’t it?”

Amalia smiled back, relieved.

“Yeah, okay,” she said, reaching out to take Vee’s hand again. This time, when they walked through the halls together, she let her thumb caress Vee’s. And Vee didn’t stop her.

Chapter 37

FEY

If Fey had been expecting the morning rain to dissuade her students from attending her lessons this morning, she was woefully disappointed.

There must be six hundred Witches here, she thought in shock, staring at the groups gathered on the palace lawn.Maybe even more.

Where were they all coming from? And why, for Goddess’s sake? Why were they all here, all so eager to learn from her?

“These are all Witches who were given Allium?” Fey asked Leandra, staring in wonder at the crowd gathered in the steady rain. They looked uncomfortable and mostly wet, though a few had managed to make their own makeshift shelters and umbrellas out of Air.

Leandra pulled a face. “Well, actually, no,” she admitted quietly. “Your lessons have become rather popular, if I’m being honest, and the other covens asked if we wouldn’t mind accommodating a few other students from their temples. Ones who might, not necessarily, have had any of their powers taken away from them by the Queen, but who want to attend your lessons for other reasons.”

Fey cast a sidelong glance at her. “And why do they want to do that?”

Leandra’s lips twitched. “Fey… whether you recognize it or not, you are an effective teacher. You’ve taken Witches with barely any powers at all and turned them into forces to be reckoned with. I think you'd be surprised at how many Witches in this city want that for themselves.”

Frowning, Fey looked out at them all again. Witches willing to brave the freezing rain just for a chance to learn from her. “Clearly,” she said.

She pivoted to face the class. But before she could begin, Leandra stopped her.

“May I ask you a personal question, Fey?”

Fey paused, turning to regard the High Priestess with narrowed eyes. She gave her a brief nod.

Leandra took a breath. “Sana informs me that you have… stopped attending her sermons. Your absence has been noted by the congregation.”

Fey waited. When Leandra provided nothing more, she said with a quirked eyebrow, “I don’t think that was a question.”

Leandra gave an exasperated sigh. “You know Sana, likely as well as I do. She overthinks. She’s concerned about you. About why you’ve stopped coming.”

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